Originally appearing in 1952, this 21st Barsetshire novel welcomes us back to a county still shadowed by the war and its aftermath. Old friends and new faces join the community conversation, as Sir Cecil Waring has plans for a home for boys of naval men killed in the war, while the Priory Preparatory School prepares for its move to Harefield. In between Charles Belton's hesitant courtship and headlong marriage to the spoiled Clarissa Graham and Grace Grantley's betrothment to Lord Lufton, we find much discussion of gardens, dogs, and other country matters. As the daughter of Margaret Burne-Jones, granddaughter of Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, and first cousin once removed of Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin, Angela Thirkell (1890–1961) was steeped in British art and culture—though for her, writing was a necessary way of supporting herself and her sons. Like all of her Barsetshire novels, this one is a smoothly written, satisfying little bonbon, flavored with just the right amounts of satire, wit, and romance, and can be read on its own—though we're sure that once you've finished it, you'll want to snap up all of them.